Never be the Same
by Sode no Shirayuki1411
Summary: Seri Awashima travels the world at the behest of her boss, chasing a Strain who has been eluding the Gold Clan for five years. Seri's confident she can succeed where the Usagi failed... Or she would be if she wasn't constantly distracted by the man the Red and Blue Kings insisted accompany her. Izumo Kusangai of HOMRA. Izumo x Seri. Part 8 of Genderbent K.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi everyone! Here is my new story! It's set in the same world as all my genderbending stories but you don't _have_ to read those first to get this one.**

 **Hope you enjoy guys. I own nothing!**

* * *

Chapter 1: The Beginning and Italy

* * *

Seri Awashima stared at her boss and silently apologized for every time she'd ever been a hardass with her subordinates.

She now understood the dismayed look Akiyama and Domyoji had shared when she'd ordered them to go undercover as a married couple, the slump of Enomoto's shoulders as Seri ordered the other woman to go back through her life and examine every inch of it. Heck, she even sympathised with Fushimi rolling his eyes and clicking his tongue every time she asked him to do _anything._ Awashima wanted nothing more than to whine 'but I don't _want to!'_ Like a petulant child and have that be the end of it.

But she would be drawn and quartered before she actually said that, least of all to her King.

Instead she pressed her heels together and bowed, hoping this didn't make the trembling in her legs too obvious, "I understand ma'am, we'll leave immediately."

Reisi Munakata smiled, "thank you lieutenant Awashima. I feel very relieved now. You're the only one I trust with this mission."

Seri's cheeks pinked and inwardly she was very pleased. It was almost enough to make up for how much she _so_ did not want to do this assignment.

Almost, but not quite.

* * *

Seri was already at the airport by the time he arrived.

"You're late," she said curtly by way of greeting.

He wasn't actually, she was just early, but no way he was going to try and tell her that, instead, he just smiled, "sorry Seri, wrapping things up at HOMRA took a little longer than I expected," that was the truth.

Seri had no way of knowing if he meant the bar or the Clan so she assumed he meant both, "you ran into trouble?"

Izumo Kusanagi had no way of knowing if she meant trouble with the bar or the Clan so he assumed she meant both, "a little. Yata and the others weren't happy with me leaving again so soon after last time, especially since I was gone so long. But they agreed, I guess it helps that HOMRA's back together and I told them what was going on this time."

Seri mulled over this information, she hadn't considered how his other Clansmen would feel about him leaving, this time or the time he was in Germany, they were all such permanent fixtures in each other's lives, it must be hard on them.

"And your King? What does she think?"

"Anna?" Izumo smiled, looking like a proud parent, "Anna understands, better than the others I think actually, Rikio and Yata are going to be looking after her and the bar together for the most part. Should be... interesting." His precious bar was going to be in smithereens by the time he got back, he just knew it. He had cheated fate last time, coming back to find the place untouched, this time he was sure he would not be so lucky.

"And what about you?" Izumo asked as they sat down together to wait to board the plane, "is Scepter 4 going to explode without you there to take care of it?"

His words were in his usual slow, drawl but Seri recognized the tease in them, she scowled and her lips pressed into a firm line, "Scepter 4 is a respected organization dedicated to peace and justice. Everyone in there is the best at what we do! As such, they are perfectly capable of continuing on without me!" ...Although, she liked to think that things ran a little more smoothly with her there.

Izumo smiled, she always told him off, she always responded, even when she knew he was poking fun at her. He reached out and tucked a lock of her wavy blonde hair behind one ear, "I'm sure it runs more smoothly when you're there though." He said.

Seri glared at his hand until it retracted, if Izumo noticed it didn't show on his face.

It wasn't that she minded being close with him, actually, she wanted to be closer. But the job came first. They had work to do and she would not be distracted. Least of all by her companion, regardless of whether he was as hot as Hell or not.

It wasn't really the fact that Izumo was very good looking that bothered her. He was, sure, but Seri knew men who were very, very good looking and then some. It was something about Izumo, something about his personality and the way he carried himself that enhanced his looks tenfold. He was breathtaking, a more sophisticated gentleman she had yet to meet.

And the arrogant bastard knew it too.

But he didn't lord his looks, charm and personality over others.

Except for her. He knew he drove her crazy, in more ways than one.

Well, at least Seri assumed he did, he had to, no man as intelligent as Izumo Kusanagi (and he _was_ intelligent) could play such havoc with her heart and not know what he was doing. He had to know.

Which made him an arrogant bastard.

The call for their plane came and Izumo stood, he offered her a hand, "shall we?"

Oh yes, goodness-knows how long together, travelling to Italy together, where they would be staying together, working together, and generally being together for an unspecified period of time in one of the most romantic places on Earth. And they needed to _work.  
_

What could possibly go wrong here?

Seri took his hand and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet, just as quickly she reached for the handle on her suitcase but Izumo beat her to it. He wrapped the hand she had just let go of around the handle of her suitcase and grabbed his with his free hand.

"It's this one, right?" He nodded at the nearest terminal and began to walk towards it.

"Hey," Seri protested, following after him, "I can handle my own stuff."

"I can handle your stuff too," said Izumo, completely straight-faced. Seri glared at him suspiciously but his bland expression did not change, if there were any innuendos on his part they were obviously accidental. If he had said that on purpose he would have cracked a smile at his own joke by now.

She grumbled a thank you and followed him, there was no point arguing, she knew, he was stubborn like that. Seri didn't believe in always giving in but, despite her bossy nature, she wasn't the type who always had to have things her own way either. She simply believed in getting things done as quickly and efficiently as possible.

If Izumo wanted to carry her luggage for her (much better wording) then why should she stop him? It wasn't like it was a misfortune on her part in any way.

But if he got in her way while he was on the job he would find himself on the receiving end of a swift ass-kicking. Awashima thought she might actually enjoy that.

* * *

When they had settled into their luxurious first-class seats (courtesy of Scepter 4), Seri settled in for a gruelling flight full of trying to hammer the importance of this mission into Izumo I-take-absolutely-nothing-seriously Kusanagi's head.

Instead, the moment they were alone he asked, "so, what do we know about this guy?"

'This guy,' as Izumo referred to him, was Shouukou Matsunaga, a Strain who had been eluding the Gold Clan, Usagi, for over five years now. Truly a force to be reckoned with, the Usagi were not to be taken lightly.

His Strain ability was nothing strictly _amazing,_ but was nothing to be coughed at either. He could control people who looked into his eyes, make them do or say things against their will. The mind-control didn't last too long after eye contact was broken but always long enough for Matsunaga to get away. This, coupled with the man's natural brains and street smart personality had kept him out of prison for going on six years.

Knowing that the entirety of the Gold Clan hadn't been able to capture this man, for five and a half years had Seri occasionally doubting if she and Izumo would stand a chance. But most of the time she doubted nothing. Izumo was the best of the best, she...

Well Seri was well aware of her unfortunate habit of freezing up at absolutely the worst moments but she was working on that. And normally she was good in a fight.

And she was good at tracking Strains, she knew how to work with what she had. She was good at her job.

They would find this man; she would not let her Captain down.

Seri straightened slightly, she pulled out her work PDA and brought up the information they needed.

"What we know about him and what we think we know are two different things, but this much is certain." She handed over her PDA and Izumo's eyes quickly flicked from left to right as he read.

While she waited Seri drew her legs up under her and stared out the window. She knew it would be fully night by the time they touched down in Florence but for now she could enjoy staring at the changing scenery on the ground far below.

"Huh," Izumo said after a while, "interesting."

Seri, who had actually begun to doze off, cracked one eye open, "the only thing that's interesting about Matsunaga is why he decided to go to Italy. He's not Italian, we have nothing to indicate he speaks the language and he'll stick out. Why would he go there when his main goal is to blend in as much as possible? Did he think the Usagi would simply stop chasing him if he managed to leave Japan?"

Izumo shrugged, "maybe he thought with the loss of their King they'd be too busy to chase him that far."

If he'd thought that, then he had been right. The Usagi couldn't chase him when they were so busy recovering from the loss of their King and the blow dealt to them, their building and the security of the nation by jungle.

But unfortunately for him, the Usagi had some powerful allies. The Gold and Blue Kings had been close, professionally, and the new Red King was eager to bridge the gap between her Clan and the others, she was very willing to allow her Clansmen to work with the other Clans, Awashima knew.

"Maybe," she agreed.

Izumo handed her PDA back, "we'll know more later," she continued, "the Usagi are trying to get us the information now but, as you can imagine, things are a bit of a mess over there."

Izumo nodded, "let's just deal with the information we have."

Seri nodded back, "I've already contacted all the airports. Of course it won't make it impossible for someone like him to leave the country but it should make it more difficult. The same can be said for inside Italy. I've talked with the local police, they're on the lookout should he try and leave Florence by traditional methods. Of course, not knowing the whole story it's hard for them to appropriately judge the danger of the situation, but I think I managed to impress the need for extreme caution and vigilance on them."

"I'm sure you did," said Izumo with a smile, he knew how scary Seri could be once she put her foot down.

But wait? She'd talked with the local police? _She_ had? Huh, he hadn't known.

"Seri? Can you speak Italian?" Izumo asked.

Seri blushed, not her usual pink, but a bright red of embarrassment, "not really," she admitted, "I was very lucky the head policeman spoke Japanese."

Well that explained it. It wasn't as though Izumo knew every single detail of Seri's life but he was sure that if she had spoken Italian it would have come up in at least one of their conversations somewhere.

"I could teach you?" He offered.

Seri stared at him for a long second, she wasn't really surprised about him knowing how to speak Italian, it had come up in one of their conversations a while ago, and even if it hadn't, she still wouldn't have been surprised.

French, Italian and he probably spoke German too, after spending so long in Germany.

Was there anything this man _couldn't_ do?

There were probably plenty of things, but nothing Seri could think of right now. That was most annoying.

But as tweaked as her pride was Seri knew this would be the quickest and most efficient way to fully grasp the language.

She knew the basics, of course, enough to get by, but she could converse neither quickly nor fluently, she wanted to change that. As quickly as possible.

* * *

When Seri awoke it was the to the sensation of being carried in someone's arms like a bride. The last thing she remembered Izumo had been teaching her Italian on the plane.

She immediately started squirming but whoever it was had obviously anticipated this and held her closely to their hard chest to limit her movements.

"Relax, it's me," a familiar voice said.

Seri briefly considered maiming him anyway, _quick and efficient,_ she reminded herself. There was no way they were going to catch this Strain quickly and efficiently if she disabled, whether permanently or temporarily, her travelling companion.

Well... she could always leave him behind.

But then she would have to explain that to the Red and Blue Kings.

Seri stifled a sigh; Kings always had to suck the fun out of everything.

"I mean it," she stifled a yawn, "put me down."

Seri didn't know how Izumo managed to get the door open while still holding her but he managed it, he crossed the room into a second, slightly smaller one, "as you wish." He deposited her gently on the think white blanket.

Seri yawned again before sitting upright, "the bags-"

Izumo rested a gentle hand on her shoulder, "I've got them, go back to sleep."

That sounded like a brilliant idea so Seri did that.

* * *

Consequently Seri was awake hours before Izumo the next day, she stretched and went about her morning routine before wandering into the front room.

It was a large open space with a huge white couch in the middle and a large flatscreen TV. One wall was entirely made of glass that looked out over the pretty scenery but they were up high enough that Seri didn't worry about someone else seeing in.

Sitting on the large couch Seri pulled her PDA back out and began going over the maps of the city she wanted to know where everything was. The police force had already highlighted the most likely and least likely places of escape but they didn't have Seri's expertise or knowledge of this man's powers.

After about an hour or so Seri had breakfast and then glanced at Izumo's shut door.

He was still asleep but that wasn't all that inconceivable, her internal alarm had been thrown off by jetlag and different time zones and thus she'd awoken later than usual, but it was still only about nine in the morning.

However he was going to have to get up sooner or later.

Seri hesitated, she was perfectly capable of hog-tying Izumo and throwing him into the nearest river if he annoyed her but walking into his bedroom and hitting him with a pillow until he woke up just seemed rude. Maybe she should just knock?

Actually... she had a better idea.

* * *

Seri knocked on Izumo's door with her free hand, "I'm coming in, you had better sleep with clothes on," she warned.

She heard a sleepy chuckle from the other side of the door, "I sleep with clothes on, just give me a sec and I'll-"

Seri opened the door as Izumo sat up, he was bare-chested but as the sheets pooled around his hips she saw that he was wearing a pair of sweatpants. Damn.

Wait. Seri blinked. NO! Not 'damn!' Good! That was a _good_ thing. Ugh, it was far too early in the morning for this, who the Hell had thought this assignment was a good idea anyway? Because it certainly hadn't been her!

She moved into the room, supporting the tray with both hands now that the door was open.

She placed the tray across Izumo's knees, for some reason she was trying hard not to blush, "here. Hurry up and eat. We have work to do."

Izumo looked charmed, "did you just bring me breakfast in bed?"

Seri beat a hasty retreat, she was definitely blushing now. But it was either breakfast in bed or tipping a bucket of ice cold water over him as he slept, and she had a feeling Izumo would prefer breakfast. She wasn't sure why, just a hunch she had.

"Thank you Seri!" Izumo called after her, yeah, he should be thankful. He had no idea how closely he'd avoided being drenched in freezing water.

* * *

Half an hour later Seri and Izumo, both fully dressed and ready to start work, exited their hotel. Seri looked out at the bustling city. It certainly was beautiful, very different from Japan. But she doubted its beauty was what had drawn Shouukou Matsunaga here. And now she and Izumo had to find him. Her, who didn't even speak fluent Italian and _Izumo Kusanagi_ of HOMRA.

Seri winced, this mission wasn't a bad idea! It was a nightmare! Then she shook herself and squared her shoulders.

"Come on. We have a job to do."

* * *

 **Done! There's the first chapter. Hope you enjoyed guys. Bye!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello everyone, here is my new chapter, I hope you all enjoy!**

 **Before we begin I must say a very special thank-you to Shiro Mirch 56 for following and faving this story and yours truly, you rock!**

 **Also, a special thanks to my wonderful reviewers. You are all awesome!**

 **viexon: No! Seri is only going to be thinking 'God damn why is Izumo is so hot?!'** ** _half_** **the time. The other half Izumo is going to be thinking 'God damn why is Seri so hot?!' XD**

 **The pre-mentioned Shiro Mirch 56, thank you so much for your review!**

 **Also to lexi, thank you for your review! Here is your new update!**

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Chapter 2: Italy and France

* * *

"I just don't get it," Awashima muttered, "why Tuscany? Why Italy at all, if Shouukou Matsunaga has been so careful and successful all these years running from the Usagi in Japan why would he potentially ruin a good thing by coming here? He must have known he'd be followed."

Izumo checked his watch, "I have no idea," he admitted, "maybe the risk of being noticed so easily was worth the chance of less pursuers?"

"But then why wait? Wouldn't he leave years ago when the Usagi were at their strongest and all after him?" Asked Seri, shaking her head.

"Well he's a Strain, not anyone's Clansman, he has no one to tell him what to do or what's going on, he may have no idea what happened to the Gold King or the tower," said Izumo.

Huh, that was a pretty good point, but after thinking it over a moment, Seri shook her head, "I can't believe that. What with the spectacle jungle made of the whole thing, Matsunaga may not know about the Gold King but everyone and their dog knows that the Usagi are no longer at their peak."

Izumo nodded, that was a good point too, she was right, jungle had made no secret of their takeover of the Gold King's tower, parts of the building had been blown off, two giant swords, one red and one blue, had hung in the air together. A red bird of fire had circled the red sword. A huge bolt of green lightning had hurtled towards the tower from the sky only to meet first a barrier of red and eventually one of blue which froze it and shattered the lightning into a million tiny snowflake-like sparkles. That had been hard to cover up. Anyone who was anyone in the world of Kings knew that the Usagi and their King would never have allowed such blatant use of power in any one spot at the same time. The Usagi no longer made the rules. Everyone could see it. Even if they didn't know why.

"So why _did_ he come here?" He murmured.

"That's one of the things I hope to find out, failing that; we'll simply ask him once we capture him." Said Seri stonily.

Izumo smiled at that, "sounds like a plan," he said.

He checked his watch, "we still have three and a half hours until out meeting with the chief of police. Do we have any leads to work on until then?"

Seri gritted her teeth, if he had actually paid attention the information they had then he would know the answer to that!

"No, we don't," she said, "until the Usagi contact us or the Italian police discover a new lead we have absolutely nothing to go on."

Izumo smiled again, _perfect._ "Then you won't mind if we spend the next three hours doing something else?"

Seri glared, of course she would mind! However, it wasn't like she had a lot of choice, they had literally _nothing_ to go on right now; they were totally stopped with no way to go.

Awashima would love to go find a lead of her own but until they were cleared with the Italian police they had no authority to do that either. They were stuck and she knew it.

Seri sighed through her nose, "What did you have in mind?"

* * *

Seri Awashima chewed the inside of her lip as she thought, what was she even doing here? She knew what she was doing in Italy but what was she doing _right here?!_ This wasn't the job she had been sent here to do, actually, this was so far from the job she had been sent here to do that the two didn't even co-exist in the same galaxy.

She was having fun, which was the first hint that she was not doing her job, why had she let Kusanagi talk her into this? She wanted to hit both herself and him, but mostly him.

They were slacking off damn it! They should be chasing after Shouukou Matsunaga right now, not taking a boat tour through Venice's Grand Canal and minor canals!

Truthfully Seri felt as though she was genuinely learning a lot about Italy, and it seemed that every few minutes there was something that would take her breath away, even if it was simply the exquisite architecture that surrounded them.

 _It's only an hour and ten minutes, then we'll be back at work,_ Seri tried to justify to herself. _  
_

Large, warm hands landed on her shoulders from behind, "hey, please remember what we're doing on this tour. We're here to take a break. You're as tense as a coiled spring, relax."

"How can I relax when we're no closer to finding him now than we were three days ago in Tuscany?" Seri demanded, her voice clipped.

"Running yourself ragged will not help you find this guy," Izumo said soothingly, "we will find him eventually, one hour is not going to hurt anyone," his thumbs began to rub circles on Seri's shoulder blades, she tensed, her back going rigid.

Izumo chuckled and his breath brushed her neck, making her shiver, "relax."

She did.

* * *

Seri's eyelids were drooping with tiredness but she refused to let them shut. How could this be happening! They knew so much about Matsunaga yet they knew nothing at all! What was he doing here? Why was he running from place to place in such an erratic fashion? He'd flown from Shizume itself, the heart of power for the Gold, Red, Blue and now Silver Kings, what was he doing _there?_ Surely he must have known that Shizume City was the absolute worst place to attempt to flee the country from? Or maybe that was what he was counting on? The Usagi never would have thought to look for Matsunaga so close to home, never thought he'd dare, or be stupid enough, to go back there.

But then Italy? Why Italy? And why Tuscany? Then Venice and now Rome? This didn't make any sense! What was he doing? Seeing the sights?! Did he know he was being actively pursued? Was he simply trying to shake them off his trail before going to his real destination, if he had one, or stop running if he didn't? Or was he just trying to confuse them?

If that was it then he was doing a bang-up job, Seri was well and truly bewildered and Izumo didn't seem to have any answers for his erratic behaviour either.

But that wasn't what was bothering Awashima and keeping her up late at night trying to catch Matsunaga _right now.  
_

As she had thought earlier, this didn't make any sense! Matsunaga was cautious, that was what had kept him from the Usagi's clutches for so long, he stayed beneath the radar and slipped away silently whenever his pursuers got too close.

So why all the flash now? Why now would he choose to be so obvious? Seri herself had never once caught a glimpse of this man but twice now the Italian police had contacted her about staff at two of their airports reporting that a man had somehow controlled them with his voice and that Matsunaga had taken a plane... to a different part of Italy!

Not to flee from any hunters who might be after him! Surly not! He was effectively running in circles! If he was trying to flee then wouldn't he leave the country again? Or control the flight attendants into thinking he had left the City and staying put?  
When Seri had first gotten (too late) the information that Matsunaga had mind-controlled his way onto a plane to Venice (she had gotten this information two hours after said plane had touched down in Venice) she had a sneaking suspicion that Matsunaga hadn't really gotten on a plane at all, that he wanted them to think he had so that whoever was following him would go to look for him in Venice while he stayed behind in Tuscany. It was what she probably would have done.

But Kusanagi had convinced her that Venice was at least worth a look. And a few days later it turned out he was right. An airport in Venice reported Matsunaga ordering his way onto a flight to Rome. Thus here they were.

But why?! Why? Why! WHY?! That was the question that bugged Seri. This wasn't like Matsunaga, this wasn't like Matsunaga at all!

This just wasn't his style, in fact, this was so not his style that Seri couldn't help but worry that someone else was suggesting he do these things, whether to control him or control them or for another plan Seri hadn't seen yet, dangling them on a string and making them dance for this person's amusement.

Someone with a propensity for manipulation, who would almost enjoy making an enemy of both HOMRA and Scepter 4 and was strong enough to do so. Someone who could send orders and information silently, untraceably, someone whose aid would make it virtually impossible to be tracked and found by technological means, including security cameras and other airport security. Someone well known for using powerful Strains in their schemes. Someone who knew _exactly_ how thinly stretched the Usagi were and exactly who would be sent to hunt Matsunaga in their place.

Someone like jungle and the Green King, Hisui Nagare, perhaps?

Maybe Seri was over-thinking this, but if her suspicions were correct then she had every right to be wary. The last time jungle had gotten involved with HOMRA and Scepter 4 several members of HOMRA along with Enomoto and Fuse had almost gotten blown up, the time before that was when they had attacked the Gold King's tower and the time before that...

The Captain had almost died and little Kusahara had ended up in a body bag with part of his skull blown off.

Seri bit her lip, just thinking about it made tears well up in her eyes, no one deserved that but least of all Kusahara.

She brushed her tears away and tried to focus on Matsunaga's profile in front of her, she could catch him, she could do this.

Seri certainly didn't want to get a bullet through her head, whether jungle was involved or not, and Izumo...

She looked over at the blond male who was asleep on the couch; he had nodded off a little while ago while pouring over maps of Rome.

If anything happened to Izumo, Seri would never forgive herself.

As though he sensed her gaze, Izumo's brown eyes slowly slid open, "Seri?" He asked thickly, his voice slightly rough from sleep.

"Hey," said Seri in a gentle voice she barely recognized. Izumo seemed to notice the strangeness in her tone too, he sat up a little straighter.

"What's wrong?" He asked in a tone that left Seri in no doubt that if she had a problem he would do anything in his power to fix it for her.

It was late, very late, she wouldn't tell him her theory about jungle now, it could wait until tomorrow, or rather, later today, "nothing," she said instead, "I just wanted to say thank you. I know your King wanted you to come but you didn't _have to,_ thank you for helping me. I know I haven't been very agreeable lately and I just want you to know how much I appreciate everything you've done for me."

Izumo didn't smile but his eyes gentled, "you're wrong, I did have to come," he reached out and took Seri's hand in one of his, he pressed a kiss to the back of her hand, "how could I let my heartless woman go after a dangerous Strain by herself?" His face sobered, "if anything happened to you Seri, I would never forgive myself."

Seri's heart seemed to find a new home in her throat and then stop, she swallowed around the lump, "Izumo, I..."

Seri wasn't the best with sweet, meaningful words and she knew it, so instead of trying and potentially failing miserably, Seri simply inched closer until she was a scarce few centimetres away from Izumo.

He leaned down slowly, giving Seri plenty of time to pull away if she wanted to, she didn't move.

Izumo's lips touched hers, a tingle ran from the top of Seri's spine to the bottom, but instead of her heartbeat speeding up she could have sworn hers slowed down, now she couldn't have moved even if she did want to, but she most certainly didn't.

Izumo pulled back and searched Seri's face for something, whatever emotion or expression he was looking for he evidentially found it because he leaned down again and pressed his mouth to hers for a second time.

This time it was Seri who broke the kiss, she stood and sat down next to Izumo on the couch before cupping his face and bringing his mouth back to hers, she let her fingers wander upwards until they curled in sleek blond strands, pulling him closer.

Izumo cradled her against him, shifting Seri until she was sitting on his lap, one hand cupped her face, gently deepening their kiss, the other a pleasant warmth on the small of her back. He sucked gently on her lower lip before grazing it with his teeth.

Now Seri's heart was definitely speeding up, why hadn't they done this before? Why had things taken so long to reach a culmination between them? For once she forgot the mission, forgot her job, forgot about Red and about Blue and just lost herself in the moment, pressing herself closer to Izumo and feeling elated when he held her tighter in return.

Eventually they had to break for air, Izumo pulled back, a light burning in his eyes, Seri repressed another shiver. Desire. He desired _her._

"You should get some sleep," said Izumo, his voice was raspy again, but this time it wasn't from sleeping, "we have work to do later today."

For the first time in her adult life, Seri didn't give a damn, she opened her swollen lips to tell him so when her phone rang.

Seri's heart lurched, who would be calling her at 1:30am?

She flipped the phone open, a second later she cursed.

Izumo's ears rang, he couldn't believe what he had just heard, had Seri just _sworn?!_ If she hadn't been sitting on his lap he might have fallen off the couch in shock.

Awashima hung up, "that was the chief of the police here in Rome. He just called to tell me that Shouukou Matsunaga has caught another plane." Her voice took on that steel-edged quality it always did when she was working, it usually meant that something was not going her way. Because nothing often was.

Izumo made a big show of rolling his eyes, "where to this time, Turin?" He asked.

Seri got up, he did too, "no. Paris." Said Seri, her voice chilly.

"Paris, _France?"_ Asked Izumo, as though he was not sure he'd heard her correctly.

Seri's mouth tightened for a second before she looked him in the eye, all traces of her nicer self gone, she was once again Lieutenant Awashima of Scepter 4, "pack your things, we're going to France."

* * *

"Izumo? Izumo Kusanagi?" Izumo and Seri turned as the unfamiliar voice called the man's name.

Izumo's face lit up in a smile, "Jeanne!" Seri took her hands off his arm so he could hug the elderly woman who had approached him. Seri wracked her brain to recall if Izumo had ever mentioned knowing a middle-aged French woman named Jeanne but nothing came to mind.

"I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw you, it's been so long, what are you doing in France? And who's this?" Her kind brown eyes turned to Seri whose icy blue ones stared back with just as much incomprehension.

"This is Seri Awashima, a... good friend of mine from Japan," said Izumo, a slight hesitation on the words 'good friend' but he recovered quickly enough.

Jeanne hugged Seri too, "a pleasure to meet you darling, any friend of Izumo's is a friend of mine. Now," she turned back to Izumo, "you haven't told me what the two of you are doing so far away from home, or does your friend Seri live here?"

No, he hadn't told her and he wasn't going to, while Izumo gave Jeanne an edited version of what they were doing in France (very, very edited version), Seri looked around her. To her left was the Seine River; on her right was a bustling shopping district, it reminded her more of Italy than it did Japan, but there were similarities between all three, the people, though different, were the same with their goals and actions, the sounds of voices, laughing, chatting were the same, despite the different languages, Seri supposed some things never changed.

She tuned back in just in time to hear Jeanne invite them both over to her house tomorrow evening for a dinner party in honour of her husband's sixtieth birthday.

Izumo hesitated, Jeanne had been a good friend of his mother back when she was still alive and he knew and liked her husband as well, it would be incredibly rude to say no and he would privately feel terrible about it but Seri was not here for dinner parties and he was here for Seri...

He glanced at her; Awashima could tell what he was thinking, she didn't really want to go, they had a job to do, but tomorrow night at seven the two of them would be working their case alone, it could wait for a couple of hours for one night. What Captain Munakata didn't know wouldn't hurt her. Though it almost physically hurt Seri to do so, she nodded.

Izumo told Jeanne they'd be there and got her address, when she left he turned to Seri, "I don't think either of us packed for a fancy dinner party in France," he admitted.

Seri wrinkled her nose ever so slightly, "I don't know about you but I didn't pack for France at all," she said, scowling at him as though this was somehow his fault.

Well...

"We'll need to go shopping then," said Izumo.

The effect was instantaneous, Seri brightened immediately, thrilled by the prospect of shopping in Paris, even if it did cut into her precious work time.

"Where should we start?" She asked, her enthusiasm shining in her eyes, Izumo heaved a mental sigh, today was going to be a long day.

* * *

 **Done! Hope you enjoyed guys!**

 **Okay, I was talking with a friend of mine and we have a couple of questions, firstly; who is the hottest Scepter 4 mook: Himori Akiyama, Yujiro Benzai, Ryuho Kamo, Andy Domyoji, Tatsuya Enomoto, Daiki Fuse, Ren Goto or Akira Hidaka?**

 **And when I say 'hottest' I mean just the most aesthetically pleasing, not talking about personalities, or actions or lines, just shallow physical appearance. Please drop me a review and tell me which one you like most, it would mean a lot to me and totally help us settle this disagreement once and for all!**

 **Also, which of the HOMRA mooks do you find most attractive: Shouhei Akagi, Saburota Bandou, You Chitose, Masaomi Dewa, Eric Solt or Kouske Fujishima? Same as before guys, just talking about their looks and if you could drop me a review or PM me and let me know that would be great.**

 **Thanks.**

 **And lastly, who is the most attractive character overall? There's a poll for this on my profile page so if you could vote and/or review and leave me your opinion that would help so much.**

 **Hope you enjoyed guys, bye!**


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